Evaluation of Vitamin B₁₂, Folate, Haematological Parameters and Some Reproductive Hormones in Subjects Attending Fertility Centres in Port Harcourt

Abstract

Background: Vitamin B12 has proven to have effect in fertility because it improves mature oocyte counts and embryo quality in women and helps in sperm quality in men, so it is efficient to carry out vitamin B12 analysis in addition to other hormone profile during routine infertility examination.
 Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate vitamin B12, folate, some haematological parameters and some reproductive hormones in men and women attending fertility centres in Port Harcourt.
 Study Design: This study is a case-control and comparative study, and a random convenient sampling method was employed. A total of two hundred (200) apparently healthy participants within the reproductive age group of 18-44 years attending the fertility clinics of Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH) Port Harcourt formerly Braithwaite Memorial Hospital (BMH) which is the only State Government owned teaching hospital in Rivers State located at Forces Avenue Port Harcourt and Save a Life Mission Hospital Port Harcourt a private owned fertility hospital located at Stadium Road, Port Harcourt were recruited for this study.
 Results: The result showed that there was no statistically significant difference in haematological parameters in cases of infertility in the female and male test groups as compared to control groups (p>0.05). The mean ±SD showed non-significant difference of serum folate in the male and female test and control groups of the study (p>0.05). This study however observed Vitamin B12 level to be statistically significantly lower in infertile females when compared with the controls (p=0.0078). There was also a statistically significant difference between the mean values of Vitamin B12 in the male test and control groups of this study (p<0.0001). Prolactin levels in the females showed a significant difference between the test and control group at (p<0.0001), with the mean (± SD) value higher in the test than the control which shows that the infertile female group were mostly having high prolactin levels. Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing hormone (LH) were significantly lower in infertile female group as compared with the control (p<0.0001). In the study carried out on the principal reproductive male hormone testosterone there was a statistically significant difference between the test and control groups (p<0.0001).
 Conclusion: There was a significant fall in vitamin B12 alongside predominant fertility hormones like testosterone in the infertile male subjects. There was also significant reduction in the serum concentration of vitamin B12 with a corresponding fall in serum concentration of fertility hormones like; luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) in the infertile females and a significant rise in the concentration of the female prolactin level. Therefore, Vitamin B12 should be included in the evaluation of infertility either primary or secondary alongside other vital conventional parameters usually considered in infertility cases.